


At First Glance

by lilyevcans



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:29:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9252521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyevcans/pseuds/lilyevcans
Summary: "It started with the goodbye of their sixth year. This is what Lily knows to be true.It was the first goodbye they had said as friends. Not as enemies, not as a potential couple, just as friends. That’s what she thought, at least, or what she told herself to think, because they made good friends, and she didn’t want to ruin that. But really, as she remembered waving to James before joining her parents, she remembered a small part of her that wanted to run back and hug him. At the very least."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Although I love the canon version of James and Vernon's first meeting, I couldn't help but straying a little and creating a different first meeting, which also happens to be when James and Lily get together. (Although the Pottermore account is definitely still canon in my head.)  
> As always, if you enjoy, let me know, and I'll love you forever!
> 
> Disclaimer: All these characters belong to J.K Rowling, not me.

It started with the goodbye of their sixth year. This is what Lily knows to be true. 

It was the first goodbye they had said as friends. Not as enemies, not as a potential couple, just as friends. That’s what she thought, at least, or what she told herself to think, because they made good friends, and she didn’t want to ruin that. But really, as she remembered waving to James before joining her parents, she remembered a small part of her that wanted to run back and hug him. At the very least. 

She would have done it too, but then he was with his parents and out of the station before she could turn back to talk to him, and she was being shuffled out by her parents, who were talking a mile a minute about Tuney, who is popular and has a new boyfriend and good marks and was too busy to come and see her.

Now it’s July, and she replays this scene again and again. This is a strange sensation to her, because she never expected to be thinking about him  _ purposefully _ . But then she realizes that every arrogant smile, every witty remark, every prank of his is just as easy to think about, to turn over in her head, to analyze, and Lily suddenly knows that she has always thinking about James Potter.  

“He said he’d write,” she tells Petunia, before turning over to look at her and realizing she is no longer in the room. Then she can hear her parents laugh, and she knows that Vernon must be over. 

Vernon is Tuney’s boyfriend. He is loud and has only one joke, a racist one about some golfer that Lily has read in a thousand joke books. Every part of him is smooth, from his slicked back hair to his ways of persuasion to the way he easily slides crisp bank notes out of his wallet. He hates her, and she hates him, and everytime he rests his beady eyes on her she can’t resist comparing him to James. James is warm, and Vernon is cold. James is messy, and Vernon is polished. James is always thinking of his next joke, and Vernon recites the same one every time he comes. 

Lily’s parents like Vernon, because he is charming and wealthy and popular. James is also charming and wealthy and popular, but his air of casual confidence, his warm heart, the way he looks at his friends, like he’s always so proud of them, make her sure that her parents would _ love _ James, if she were ever to bring him over. 

She can imagine this so clearly, the way James would shake her father’s hand, smile at her mother, tell them the story of whatever prank he has just pulled, that she suddenly wants it,  _ needs it _ , to happen. 

So she writes to James. It isn’t a long letter, she doesn’t spill out her feelings, she makes sure to keep it friendly, because they are  _ just friends _ . 

_ Hello, and greetings from Hell,  _ she writes, underlining it in a fit of passion as she hears her mother laugh again, then hears Tuney call Vernon “darling”.  _ Tuney’s got a new boyfriend, and he’s everything you think he would be. _

She goes on to write about the time Vernon ordered her meal for her when they all went out for dinner, his one joke, the way he judges strangers’ cars. She almost writes about how lonely she is, how she has been looking for his letters all summer, but the she she remembers they are _ just friends _ . Instead, she tells him about the big dinner Vernon’s family has planned and how Petunia made her buy a dress. 

_ I’m not saying it’s hideous, but you can say it for yourself, because Tuney somehow managed to make it _ red  _ taffeta. The dinner is going to be dreadful, but at the very least, there’s food.   _ She pauses for a moment, before, signing her name. _ Lots of love, Lily. _

Then she attaches it to her owl’s leg and sends him off, praying to get a response soon, telling herself it’s only because she wants someone to talk to. 

Once two days pass though, she finds it harder and harder to tell herself this. More often than not, she finds herself looking at the window, hoping that her owl has come back with James’ response. 

Then two more days pass, and now she is trying to remind herself  that she is not in some typical teenage movie, that she is better than that, that she is better than James Potter.

Petunia catches her staring at the window, and immediately catches on. In the years Lily has been at school, she has established herself as the queen of gossip. Petunia Evans knows your secrets before you do, and she can instantly tell by the flush in her sister’s cheeks, the unfamiliar song she hums, the glow in her eyes as she looks out the window, that this is about a boy. Part of her wants to reach out, to help Lily, to giggle about whatever boy has taken her heart. 

Instead, she opens her mouth, and says, “Have you fallen for _Severus_ , Lily? Even _you_ can do better than freak like that.”

All at once, the color leaves Lily’s face, and Petunia now knows something else. She has broken something that she can never fix. 

Her sister does not shout at her, like she expected. 

She only whispers, “You know nothing, Tuney.” Her glare is like that of one who has seen more than they can ever explain, and Petunia knows that they will never go back to the way they were.  

It has been two weeks since she sent the letter, and Lily is trying to move on. She flirts with a cashier at the market, scribbles down her phone number, winks, and hates herself through every minute of it, because it is impossible to shake the feeling that she is cheating. But she continues, partly to prove to herself that she and James are  _ just friends _ , partly because Petunia has spent so much time with Vernon that Lily needs to prove that she can also get a date, prove that Vernon is not special. 

Then before she knows it, it is the day of the dinner, and Petunia is looking stunning in a golden dress that Vernon bought her as a gift and looking herself over in the mirror, and their parents are running around trying to look perfect before they leave, and Lily gives up on trying to do anything about her dress, which is bright red and clashes fantastically with her hair, and which she is ninety percent sure Petunia bought from the clearance rack, and that date she had promised herself she would get is nonexistent. 

And then, a rumble comes from the chimney, and then some muffled cursing, and Lily’s heart soars so high she thinks it may never come back down again. Petunia looks horrified, and their parents looked rightfully delighted as James Potter strolls out of their fireplace, looking both suave and sooty in a black suit. 

“Evans,” he nods solemnly.

“Potter.” 

They stare at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. The best kind of laughter, the kind that is filled with inside jokes and shared memories, and they only laugh harder as Petunia shrieks to their parents, “Who is he? Who is he?”

“I’m Evans’ date. Thought you might have gotten that by now.” 

She is still shrieking to their parents about how unfair it is when a limousine pulls up that Vernon ordered, because of course he did. And even though Lily is sure James has never been in a car before, he doesn’t show it, sliding into the car easily, and suddenly she suspects that Remus has showed him one too many spy movies.

“How did you know when this was?” She whispers.

James looks slightly confused. “You told me.” He holds up the letter and points to the date.

“Well, I sent that letter a month ago, not my fault I forgot what I wrote.”

He smiles a little uneasily, and so she changes the topic to how he’s probably been slacking off on his summer work, which opens the gate for light bickering all the way to the restaurant. 

Vernon greets them at the door, along with his sister, who takes up more than have the doorway and communicates only through grunts, and his parents, who look generically wealthy, and there is all the usual shaking of hands and greetings. 

“Who the ruddy—” He starts, pointing a fat finger at James. 

Petunia sneers. “It’s her  _ date _ , apparently.” She makes a show of kissing Vernon, then glares back at Lily as they walk in, and Lily almost kisses James to get back at her, then restrains herself, because she does not want their first kiss to be out of spite. Instead, he slips his hand into hers, and she marvels at how it warms her hand. 

They sit down at one big table, and Lily’s parents begin talking to Vernon’s parents, and they are blissfully unaware of the silent war going on beside them. Lily and Petunia are glaring at each other, battling with their eyes, while Vernon looks at James, assessing him.

“Eyes up here, mate,” James quips, and Lily for once, does not care that Petunia looks as if she is about to burst, or that Vernon’s face is turning a magnificent shade of red, or that she will probably never be invited to something like this again. 

Instead, she chuckles. “Glad Sirius isn’t here. He’d be going positively mad with jealousy.”

“Ah, but then Remus would be jealous of him getting jealous.”

It isn’t the best joke they’ve ever made, but paired with some flirty winks and suggestive tones, they succeed in flustering the other couple so badly that Vernon can only splutter out, “Wh-what kind of name is Sirius?”

The rest of dinner is a blur. They spend the night as a team, deflecting Petunia’s questions in the easiest of tones, and even stopping Vernon’s joke in its tracks. Just as Lily sets down her fork and Vernon has stopped trying to discreetly lick his plate, a live band starts playing, and lights shine on a small dance floor, which is unusual, but Lily had no time to ponder why it’s there before James pushes in his chair and takes her hand.

“Dance with me, Evans?” 

She turns back as James leads her to the dance floor to look at er parents, who are practically heart-eyed at the sight of them, and Petunia, and just for a minute, Lily pities the look on her face. Vernon is affectionate, sure, but she knows that Petunia has never been looked at the way James looks at her. 

Then the moment is gone and Petunia rearranges her face into a glare as Lily turns back to James, who makes a surprisingly good dancer as he twirls her around, but then again, he told her last year his parents had taught him how as a child.

“You slicked your hair back,” she observes wryly. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion,” he shrugs. “For you, Evans, I might be able to swing a half off deal. Not that you need it, of course.”

Lily sighs slightly and pulls herself closer to him, smelling fire, a scent he’s never been able to shake. “I think something has broken between Tuney and I,” she tells James, who laughs a laugh of someone much older than him. 

“She made her choice. You’ve made yours. And I have to say, I prefer the company you keep much better.”

She leans over and kisses him. It is not the triumphant post-Quidditch game win kiss, or passionate, boundary-breaking kiss she had always imagined. It is much, much better. It is short, and soft, but they have now broken past  _ just friends _ . She can feel him begin to smile as they break apart, and she nods at him, attempting to imitate his usual cocky stance.

“Alright, Potter?”

He has the dazed look of a deer in headlights, but he grins back at her. “I’m alright, Evans.”

She grabs his hands and they start dancing again, this time to a much faster tune.

Lily is only sixteen. According to everything she knows,  _ no one _ stays with their first love. But everything about James seems to prove that false, from the warmth of his hands, to the way he talks to her all night about how to help Sirius, to that smile when he finally kissed her.

It started with the goodbye of their sixth year. This is what Lily knows to be true. 


End file.
